Another Vanishing Bird Cage has been added to my collection. This is (probably) a Sherms Vanishing Bird Cage. This is the original design that Milson Worth used for their Silver Meteor Vanishing Bird Cage, but the Milson Worth Cage was smaller.
This has an “S&” stamped on one side near the clip and a “T” on the other side.
The reason I’m not positive that this is a Sherms is that there’s one on eBay listed as a Warren Simms Vanishing Bird Cage and it has the same “S&” stamp on it, and it has brass bars.
No matter who made it, it’s a cool cage!
If you have positive info on the maker, let me know!
-Louie
From what I’ve read I think the “S” hallmark stands for for Simms . Warren Simms made the cages and various dealers sold them. Sherms might have sold this cage, but I don’t think they made it . The “T” on the other side of the bar probably stands for Tannen’s Magic who were one of the dealers who regularly sold cages made by Warren Simms. This larger model was called the Silver Flash cage , then later Lou Tannen had Warren Simms make a smaller version called the Silver Meteor. When Warren Simms died , Milson-Worth took over making his bird cage design. Milson-Worth actually did make the larger size Simms cage , as well as the smaller Silver Meteor cage. On a magic collectors group someone posted photos of both the large and small cages made by Milson-Worth , based on the Warren Simms design. (I’ll email you the photos).
If you have access to The Conjuror’s Magazine (the one edited in the 1940’s by Walter B. Gibson) in the Sept. 1946 issue (on page 33) , Warren Simms has a great idea for vanishing a cage in a paper bag. Put the cage in to the paper bag. Blow up the bag. Pop the bag and crush it , throwing it out to the audience.
That cage was old to me by Quicker Than The Eye and they said it was a Sherms. I had doubts, and Doug Edward confirmed that the cage isn’t a sherms and they never made a cage. The T is tannens, as Simms liked to know where the cages were sold if they ever were returned.
The paper bag as I understand it, was common with the older style rigid cages. I’m still amazed that a flash vanish could be done with those!
The cage you have the close up has brass bars, so I’m guessing that was made later that one mentioned in the trick with the paper back that has nickel silver bars.
It’s fun to see the pic of those cages together. I should get out my whole collection and take a pic of them.
Louie
I did see the Simms cage that is listed on eBay . The seller is asking $2,000 for it !!! That seems excessive. Also, that listing seems to be where I got a couple of the photos I emailed to you. I must have grabbed those photos and forgot where I found them, because for I thought I had found them on one of the Facebook magic collector’s groups.
that cage at $2k is way too much…but you never know.
I should list mine at $1,500!
Louie